A History and Perspective of Non-Fullerene Electron Acceptors for Organic Solar Cells

Organic solar cells are composed of electron donating and accepting organic semiconductors. Whilst a significant palette of donors has been developed over three decades, until recently only a small number of acceptors have proven capable of delivering high power conversion efficiencies. In particular the fullerenes have dominated the landscape. In this perspective, the emergence of a family of materials-the non-fullerene acceptors (NFAs) is described. These have delivered a discontinuous advance in cell efficiencies, with the significant milestone of 20% now in sight. Intensive international efforts in synthetic chemistry have established clear design rules for molecular engineering enabling an ever-expanding number of high efficiency candidates. However, these materials challenge the accepted wisdom of how organic solar cells work and force new thinking in areas such as morphology, charge generation and recombination. This perspective provides a historical context for the development of NFAs, and also addresses current thinking in these areas plus considers important manufacturability criteria. There is no doubt that the NFAs have propelled organic solar cell technology to the efficiencies necessary for a viable commercial technology-but how far can they be pushed, and will they also deliver on equally important metrics such as stability?

Automated summary

Organic solar cells have evolved from relying on fullerenes as acceptors to the emergence of non-fullerene acceptors (NFAs) which have significantly improved cell efficiencies. However, NFAs challenge the traditional understanding of organic solar cell operation, requiring rethinking of morphology, charge generation, and recombination.